Wilmington Swain School has been demolished

WITH VIDEO! The Wilmington Town Common has a new look. After more than 90 years, the Swain School, a prominent fixture on the common, is gone.

Mac McEntire, Staff Writer

The Wilmington Town Common has a new look. After more than 90 years, the Swain School, a prominent fixture on the common, is gone.

Following the wishes of a majority of voters, who believed the building to be unsafe, the Swain School has been demolished. For the last week, construction crews have leveled the building, leaving a hole in its place, and are now working to flatten out the land around it.

The Swain School, built in 1918, was at one time Wilmington’s high school. Until recently, it was home to WCTV, the town’s public access television station. The building has been unoccupied since WCTV moved out.

After hours of debate, Wilmington residents at this year’s annual Town Meeting, held in April, voted to demolish the historic Swain School, located on the Town Common.

At the meeting, the final vote was 123 in favor of demolishing the school, with 23 opposed.

The article as written was to raise and appropriate $160,000 for asbestos removal and demolition of the building, as well as properly disposing of all material relating to the demolition. Wilmington resident Gerald O’Reilly then made a motion to amend the article, to remove only the asbestos and then study the building for possible future use. The amendment was then revisited, and voters approved tearing down the building.

Town Manager Michael Caira argued that the Swain School was not a safe building, and was in a severe state of disrepair.”

Before being demolished, the school had a fence around it because of a danger of falling bricks. Others at the meeting argued that the basement floods every time it rains.

Caira said that the destruction of the building should be an all-encompassing project. Leaving it standing, or partially standing, he said, would not have made sense from a financial point of view, a master plan point of view, or a public safety point of view.

Caira added that he attended school there when he was a child, and said that even then it was a “terrible building” and “As a young person, it was frightening.”

Wilmington Building Inspector Al Spaulding called the building unsafe, saying that no one went in there without a hardhat.

Where you a Swain student?

If you once attended school at the Swain School in Wilmington, write to us and share your stories. What was the building like then? What were the teachers like? How was life in town different then compared to now? Write to wilmington@cnc.com and let us know.

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